About Postcards

Places drawn in text, mostly at night, with lofi underneath that never ends and never repeats. Each place listens to the music.

• Paris: the Seine at night in the rain, a stone bridge, lit boats, blocks of cream stone and zinc roofs, and the tower in gold. Lamps breathe with the kick, windows light up with the melody (higher notes, higher floors), the tower sparkles on the hats. Rhodes, upright bass, accordion.
• Venice: the Grand Canal under a big moon, the Rialto, gondolas and vaporetti, the campanile and the domes of San Marco. The water holds the reflections of the lit windows and rings on the kick, and the bell answers from the campanile. Nylon guitar bossa, flute, strings.
• Tokyo: a rainy backstreet under the railway, neon, vending machines, power lines and Tokyo Tower in the haze. The neon pulses with the kick, and a train crosses the viaduct when you hear one. FM piano, synth bass, square lead and jazz guitar.
• New York: Brooklyn rooftops with water towers and fire escapes, the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, the Empire State changing colour with the chords. Boom-bap: a dusty chopped piano, upright bass, tenor sax. Sirens cross the avenues and the el rumbles over the street when you hear them.
• Havana: the Malecón at night, waves bursting over the sea wall, pastel arcades with washing on the balconies, the Capitolio’s gold dome and the Morro lighthouse across the harbour, old cars cruising. Son and bolero: a guitar montuno, muted trumpet, congas and clave.
• Sydney: the harbour at night, the Opera House sails lit warm, the Harbour Bridge, ferries crossing with lit decks, the towers behind. A ferry leaves when you hear its horn, and a train crosses the bridge. Neo-soul: clean guitar, sax and muted trumpet.
• Lofoten: a winter night in the islands off Norway, red fishing cabins on stilts, snow on the peaks and the northern lights over them. The aurora is the instrument: chords fold it and shift its colours, every note of the tune fires a ray up the curtain, low notes to the left and high to the right, and the kick brightens the sky. Felt piano, bowed cello and a lone trumpet, the slowest and most spacious of them all.
• Terraces: a valley of green tea terraces in the mist, a river village, a red bridge and a pagoda. Fireflies rise where the shakuhachi plays and the waterwheel turns with the beat. Koto, a warm pad, shakuhachi.
• Twin Suns: a desert outpost on another world at dusk, the only place that isn’t night: two suns going down over the dunes, a ringed planet rising, domed homes, moisture towers, a market, a wreck in the sand and a caravan on the ridge. Warm analog synths, a reedy desert lead with a sitar answering, and hand drums. A gust streams sand off every crest.
• Sky Islands: floating islands over a sea of moonlit cloud, waterfalls pouring off their edges, rope bridges and lantern-hung trees, airships drifting between them. Harp, strings and an ocarina, the most weightless of them all.
• Globe wraps the whole place round a planet hanging in the night. It turns slowly; drag to turn it yourself.
• Weather cycles clear, rain and snow in every place. Snow settles on the roofs as it falls. Rain and snow soften the music too.
• Tour drifts from place to place every few minutes, on a downbeat.
• Space plays and pauses. The controls fade away after a few quiet seconds; move or touch to bring them back.

The pictures are built in isometric space and drawn as glyphs on a WebGL grid, as in Willowmere. The music is composed as it plays, on the house soundfont, through a little tape wobble and vinyl crackle.

Changelog

• Initial release